


Four Times it was Adam’s First Time Doing Something, Plus One Time it was Ronan’s

by ungoodpirate



Series: Belated Pynch Week 2017 [7]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: M/M, Pynch Week, Pynch Week 2017, Road Trip, pynch - Freeform, soft boyfriends doing cute shit together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-23
Updated: 2017-08-23
Packaged: 2018-12-18 22:30:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11884182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ungoodpirate/pseuds/ungoodpirate
Summary: “You said you’ve never been out of this county before. We’re about to drive through like six states. Might as well fucking see them.”---AKA Ronan and Adam take a road trip up to Adam's Ivy League school before his freshman year and also the way they experience things like smores, ocean waves, drama over the music playing in the car, and long overdue confessions---AKA, Day 7 of my belated pynch week where I mix together two of the prompt options: road trip and first time.





	Four Times it was Adam’s First Time Doing Something, Plus One Time it was Ronan’s

1

The ocean waves crashed in a rhythmic white noise against the soft sand shore. The air tasted and smelt different than inland, where Adam was used to living. Salty. He didn’t know air could taste salty. 

Adam raised his flat hand above his pale eyebrows, shielding against the sun. “It really just does go on forever,” he said, of the horizon. “All the way to England… Well, I guess we’re not on the same latitude as England.”

“Nerd,” Ronan said. Adam gave him a glance. He looked unfit for the beach in full length black, the top of his shoulders already going red where they were exposed by his loose tank top. He was squinting viciously against the sunlight. 

“You were right. This was a good idea.” 

Ronan shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal and Adam pretended that the color in his face was from sunburn. 

Adam Parrish had never seen the ocean before.

“You ready to go?” Ronan asked. 

“Give me a few more minutes.” 

#

When Ronan had suggested they take a few extra days when traveling up to New Haven for Adam’s orientation week and semester start in order to sight see, Adam found it a wasteful idea. He could use those few extra days to get in a few extra shifts for a few extra dollars. 

“You said you’ve never been out of this county before. We’re about to drive through like six states. Might as well fucking see them.” 

Ronan was unusually persistent, and Adam eventually bent. 

2

The first adventure occurred a few hours out of Henrietta, when Adam twisted off the knob of the stereo, saying, “I’m not listening to this garbage the whole drive up.” 

So Ronan ejected the CD and they tried the radio, but they were too far out for the presets and the stations kept staticing in and out. 

“I’m not driving the whole way up without music,” Ronan protested, and drove them into a small city they were near and drove around said city until he found a music store. 

“Go buy something,” Ronan said, after shifting into park in the strip mall parking lot, because he wasn’t stupid enough to offer to buy for Adam directly. Adam had to spend a while accepting that Ronan wouldn’t accept gas money from him. 

“It’s my car,” Ronan had said. “And I can do what the fuck I want with it, including driving your ass around.” 

Adam came back twenty minutes later with two CDs: Celtic music and Johnny Cash.

Ronan pushed a pair of sunglasses up his nose. “Acceptable.” 

“CDs are expensive,” Adam commented, once Ronan commented have swerved them out of the parking lot with the confident ease of ice skater following well-practiced glides. “I never bought one before.” 

“Well, hate to break it to you, Parrish, but CDs are going out of fashion. That might’ve just been the last time you ever buy some.”

“You have a whole tower of CDs in your room,” Adam said.

“That’s because they don’t play my type of music on the radio.”

3

They camped overnight on the ways up because Adam can’t stomach letting Ronan pay for hotel rooms all the way up and Ronan can’t stomach staying in the cheap motels Adam would consider in budget. Campgrounds are cheaper and easy to find from Virginia up past the Mason-Dixon line and into New England. It was warm enough in late August, and they can sleep in the car instead of practice their hand at tent-pitching. 

Their last night of camping before they would reach New Haven, they cooked hot dogs over the fire, and after they had eaten their fill, Ronan revealed another bag of food: marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate. 

“Dessert,” he announced. Adam stared as he ripped open the marshmallow bag with the assistance of his teeth and then stuck three marshmallows in a row on the end of what had been his hot dog stick. 

When he caught Adam staring, he said, “Please tell me this isn’t your first time making smores.”

“My childhood was pathetic and lacking,” Adam said.

“If I could, I’d remake a whole life for you.” 

It was one of those things that was very un-Ronan to say, poetic and swearless, torn unthinkingly from the heart. 

Adam grabbed him by the sleeve and kissed him. 

“Alright,” Ronan said. “Here’s how you smore. Some people like to just stick the marshmallows in the flame and light that shit on fire, but if you’re patient, you can cook ‘em slowly over the coals.”

“I want to light that shit on fire,” Adam said. 

“That’s my kind of smore.”

4

“Is it everything you wet-dreamed it would be?” 

Adam could’ve turned in the passenger seat to whack Ronan on the arm for the comment if Adam wasn’t so glued to the window. They had reached New Haven. They had reached Yale, and Ronan was driving them through and around the roads of the campus so Adam gawk, take his first peek at the emerald city he had finally reached.

“That’s the library right there,” Adam said, and Ronan grunted because Ronan didn’t care about those kind of things, yet here he was chauffeuring anyway. A turn later, Adam said, “I think that’s my dorm.” Because of course he knew the layout of campus and the look of prestigious buildings. He had researched. He was ready. 

+1

They had arrived in New Haven a day before Adam could check in, and because it would be their last night together, a night they wanted to commemorate, Adam eased up on the hotel idea, although he insisted on splitting the bill.

After Adam came out from the shower wearing the absurdly soft bathroom provided, Ronan -- sitting on the bed while the TV flickered on low volume scenes from one of the Fast and Furious movies -- was watching him. He watched Adam in that careful, open, drinking way he had done all those months ago, before they had kissed, before Adam was sure of his own feelings, before Ronan knew Adam knew he was looking. 

Now that they were dating, Adam could call him on it. 

Adam climbed in bed beside him, kissed the corner of his mouth, his temple, the space below his ear. He teased there, “You think I’m hot.” 

“Yeah,” he heard Ronan said, hand gripping at the side of his robe. It wouldn’t take much strength or maneuvering to remove it. “It’s because I’m gay.” 

As Adam trailed his mouth down Ronan’s jawline, he felt him stiffen. 

He drew back, eyed Ronan over for anything done wrong. “What is it?” 

“That’s the first time I said it,” Ronan said. There was a little pinch between his brows. 

“Said what?” 

Ronan’s nostrils flared, though the rest of his stayed calm and languid on the mattress. 

“That I’m gay.”

“Is it?” Adam’s mind was already racing backward, trying to remember another occurrence but failing. 

“The first time I said it to someone else.” He tugged at the leather bands on his wrist, hands laid at his lap.

“Ronan,” Adam said shifting closer. “We’ve been making out for three months.” 

Ronan barked a singular laugh. “Yeah, I thought your Ivy League ass was smart enough to figure it out with the context clues.”

Ronan Lynch was an exquisite creature. Despite his bark and the face he put on for the world, he was a very private person. He didn’t say much, didn’t share his heart with many, didn’t befriend but a few, but when he did, he did it with his entire being -- spirit and body. Somewhere along the line, Adam made it into Ronan’s inner circle. Somewhere along the line, he became the first person Ronan admitted this precious thing to, even if Adam already knew. 

“The people that matter know,” Ronan said. “But there’s something about saying it.” 

Children of Cabeswater, both Ronan and Adam knew that words had power. That applied out in the real world too. 

The night was filled with other known confessions: I’ll miss you, I love you, and I promise, I promise, I promise.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr at ungoodgatsby.tumblr.com


End file.
